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What Can Brown Do For You?

Padres 1984 Throwbacks 5-23-14 - 550

By Phil Hecken

Last night the San Diego Padres, continuing their “retro weekend” series against the Chicago Cubs, threw back to their road (brown) uniforms of 1984.

Aside from 1984 being 30 years ago, it was a very good year for the Padres. Stung by the death of their longtime owner, Ray Kroc in January, they would turn in a magical season that culminated in a dramatic playoff comeback against the Cubs, and a trip to their first World Series, where they would eventually lose to the Tigers. You can read more about their 1984 season here.

So the Padres chose to play three games of this “retro weekend” series in throwbacks — on Thursday evening, they wore their white (home) uniforms (sadly, most players didn’t wear high cuffs), and last night and today they will wear their brown tops. On Sunday, they’ll return to their normal “Sunday Camo” unis.

Let’s see how they did, and then compare those uniforms to the originals (click on any images to enlarge):

Padres 1984 Throwbacks 5-23-14

Padres 1984 Throwbacks 5-23-14

Padres 1984 Throwbacks - 5-23-14

Aside from the obvious lack of high cuffs, these uniforms are pretty spot on to their originals. But there are some slight problems.

In 1984, the Padres moved away from their pullover and sansabelt stylings which they wore from 1980 to 1983 — to the exact same uniform, except with button-front jerseys and belted pants.

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Item_11164_1
1983 Jersey (pullover) … 1984 Jersey (botton-front)

The 1984 jerseys were identical to the 1980-83 styles in lettering and overall appearance, except for the “RAK” initials which were in memory of their owner (Ray Kroc) and which were added to the left sleeve.

The back of the 1984 jersey featured beautiful vertically arched lettering affixed via a nameplate:

sandiegopadres1984stevegarveyroadjersey

The jerseys worn by the Padres last evening nailed the VAL on nameplates were radially arched, and the font appeared to be spot-on as well. The NOB arching, unfortunately, was less parabolic than the originals:

Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14


Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14

Edit: As pointed out by a reader, the retro jerseys also featured smaller “Padres” lettering, allowing the ‘d’ on the throwback to sit to the left of the botton placket. The originals split the “d” along the rubicon (throwback jersey on left, original on right):

84_jersey_200x200

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In fact, the only major complaint would be the “RAK” initials on the left sleeve — those where MUCH larger than the 1984 originals:

Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14

They nailed the gold-orange striping on the neck and sleeves, and also the pants:

Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14

Of course, the 1984 Padres wore white shoes, and all (as was the style) went high cuffed. Their brown stirrups and gold sannies were a classic (if somewhat garish) look:

Goose

tony-gwynn-padres-rf-1984

Last evening (as well as the day before), the 2014 Padres wore their usual black cleats, and I could not find a single photo of a player going high cuffed. That part was disappointing.

Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14

Padres 1984 throwbacks - 5-23-14

The caps and batting helmets (other than the fact that every player now wears an earflap) were also spot on. No complaints there.

The Padres even brought out several of the 1984 ballclub for honors before the game started. It was a nice touch:

garvey-new

Padres 1984 Throwbacks

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the game (next year I am getting either the on-line version or Extra Innings), but I did see a few highlights on MLB network, and there seemed to be high praise for the effort.

This is not the first time the Padres have played a throwback game. But it was definitely one of their better efforts, uniform-wise.

As far as the uniforms go — granted, Twitter is no true barometer, but (as of 1:00 am last night) a majority of the commenters expressed support for the brown and many wondered why they don’t go back to it. Others weren’t so supportive.

As far as the Padres go — I wholeheartedly support a return to the brown and gold color scheme, and while 1984 was not my favorite year (I love their original unis from 1969 the best, and which they have thrown back to before) or the mid-1970s or 1978 duds as a second choice. But I’d take 1984-esque uniforms over ANYTHING they’ve worn since.

Not everyone loves the brown tops, of course — but it’s a color the Padres have OWNED since their inception, incredulously dropping it as a color, for good from 1991 on.

If you missed last evening’s game, they’ll play again in the brown tops today (but it’s a 7:10 PDT start — so if you live in the east, that’s 10:10). Of course, today there is a Negro League throwback (Tigers and Rangers – with an afternoon start time), and later this evening, the Mariners and Astros are turning back the clock to 1979 (10:10 EDT start), with the Astros breaking out the Tequila Sunrise/Rainbow Guts for the occasion. So it’s going to be a full day of non-standard unis throughout MLB. And I love it!

Readers, what say you?

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colorize this

Colorize This!

Occasionally, I will be featuring wonderful, high-quality black and white photographs that are just begging to be colorized.

It’s been a while since we had any colorizations, but last weekend I ticker-linked this black & white photo, which contained a young (age 14) Pele. At the time, I didn’t know what team was being represented. Soccer buff, historian, and colorizer-extraordinaire George Chilvers responded in the comments, “Pele is playing for Bauru. He is the legend (in Portuguese) that goes wit the photo: ‘PELE059: Aos 14 anos, Pelé foi campeão invicto pelo time juvenil do Bauru Atlético Clube, o Baquinho, e pela primeira vez sua foto é publicada em um jornal de grande circulação, A Gazeta Esportiva. Pelé é o segundo da esquerda para a direita, agachado. Bauru, São Paulo, 10 de fevereiro de 1954’.”

He then added, “If only we could see that picture in colour…” Once I saw that comment, I knew it wouldn’t be long until we did.

So, today, I’m very pleased to welcome back George with his latest colorization. Click on image to enlarge.

. . .

Pele at 14 colour - George Chilvers

Hi Phil””

After saying last week how nice it would be to see this photo in colour, what an amazing coincidence that I have found this lurking. What are the odds on that happening? ;)

Pele aged 14, for Bauru. The earliest photo of Pele to be published in a national journal in 1954.

Best wishes

George

. . .

Thanks George. Great colorization, as always. OK, colorizers — love for you guys to have your latest work featured on here. Keep ’em coming!

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2014 Logo


U.W.F.F.L. Spring League

UWFFL Spring 2014 – Week 11
By Rob Holecko

We are back with another week of competition in our 2014 Spring Developmental League. Our thanks go out to all of you who took the time to vote last weekend. Today we present to you another full slate of games to vote on, including this week’s spotlight game, a matchup from the Northwest as the (3-2) Montana Syndicate heads to Calgary to take on the (3-1) Calgary Alpines. This is a big game for both of these teams as they trail Yellowknife and British Columbia in the Group F standings and the winner of this game will have the inside track on third place and the final promotion spot from this group into the Division II fall league.

UWFFL week 11

Montana is wearing brown-over-white, their typical home uniform as they go on the road to face the Alpines, who are one of only two teams in the UWFFL D-League that traditionally wear white at home. The Alpines’ uniform is adorned with the Alberta provincial flag patch and the optional UWFFL Developmental League patch, while the Syndicate’s simple color scheme somewhat reminiscent of the 1970’s San Diego Padres’ mustard and brown, features a unique font and stripe pattern, and both teams have been voters’ favorites more often than not so far this season, as coming in to this matchup they both are above .500.

. . .

Montana at Calgary
  
pollcode.com free polls 

. . .

Be sure to head over to https://www.uwfantasyfootballleague.com to vote on the other twelve games, and we’ll see you next week.

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Too Good For the Ticker


Too Good…

for the Ticker

Got an e-mail from Charles Noerenberg, with a fairly intricate (and long) bit on the Tampa Bay Rays “dugout fun.” It’s just too good for the regular ticker, so it gets its own section, below:

. . .

I’ve been sitting on some stuff for awhile and hadn’t gotten around to sending ’til now. I’ve become a fan of the Tampa Bay Rays in recent years, and this season decided to purchase MLB.tv so I could watch all their games up here in Chicago. I think my favorite thing about watching the Rays so far (since they’re currently in last place) has been following a very fun and humorous occurrence in the dugout.

Early in April, the Rays had a kids promotion for a Desmond Jennings “Baseball Buddy”, a small stuffed doll of the centerfielder, which was surprisingly detailed from a uni standpoint. A few days before the official giveaway game, one of the Jennings Baseball Buddies started showing up in the team’s dugout.

It started out sitting on the bench very conspicuously, sometimes even next to its real-life counterpart. The players would position it in clever places, to make sure it was always part of the action. I think the cameramen must’ve found this funny too, because the Buddy always seemed like it was in the frame when they’d cut to a dugout shot.

When the team (Jennings included) began slumping, the players must’ve placed some of the blame on the Baseball Buddy, because for awhile in mid-to-late April it was punished and made to sit in the corner. It eventually was aloud to view the action again, but after that the Buddy was usually stuffed away next to the bullpen phone, away from the main bench.

Sadly, I haven’t seen the Jennings Baseball Buddy for a couple weeks now, likely because the team has continued to struggle and incurred a rash of injuries. While the whole thing was going on, though, I found it incredibly funny and entertaining. I looked forward to the first dugout shot of each game, and playing Where’s Waldo with the cute lil’ guy. Obviously, it was only a matter of time before I purchased one of the Baseball Buddies for my own on eBay, and I now use him as a sort of team stress/voodoo doll (here he is mingling with the cat, who has been less-than-accommodating).

. . .

Thanks, Charles — Great stuff. OK, now onto the ticker…

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Uni Watch News Ticker:

Baseball News: Some of the teams at the SEC tournament were rocking some outstanding stirrups on Thursday. Submitter James Hays wanted to ask the players a question, however: “Ummm….guys, you have heard of sannies, right? What’s with the ribbed crew socks? And some of them are even showing a swoosh. If you’re gonna ditch the pajama pants, why not do it right?” … More wonderful stirrups come from Frank Mercogliano, who send in these great shots of Bakersfield and Sacremento State — and check out the gold sannies on Sac State! … The Blue Jays will not be wearing USMC camo jerseys and caps this Memorial Day. Instead they’ll be wearing CADPAT camo jerseys and caps instead. Says submitter Michael O’Connor, “I follow the Blue Jays on Facebook and the team posted an ad saying these jerseys are on sale. At quick glance the lettering seemed more green than what I’d previously seen on Sportslogos.net, and last year’s jerseys.”… This is awesome: The Lake County Captains — Class A affiliates of the Cleveland Indians — are giving away Jobu bobblehead dolls at their Aug. 1 game. You can read more here. … Kurt Witten was curious how the St. Louis Cardinals would look if they wore their alternate caps with the “St. Louis” script uniforms. … Not even high cuffs could make this Southeastern LA uniform look good (h/t Josh McDaniel). … On June 12th, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers are holding a “salute the cows” night and the first 1,000 people get these “unimaginative” batting helmets (with thanks to Jared VanderWeele, who points out that “Cows NEVER have the same spots.”). … West Virginia wore these “camo” things yesterday against Baylor. … The Perry Panthers, of Massillon, Ohio, honored fallen veterans (and living ones too) by breaking out the camo tops. … Point #2 in this article is interesting: Nebraska baseball coach Darin Erstad noticed third baseman Jake Placzek’s sunglasses were pulled up over the bill of his cap during a post-game interview. Erstad removed them. Asked why, Erstad replied: “Because that’s the ‘N.’ It’s for the Huskers. We’re not sponsored by a sunglasses company.” (Thanks to Jim Polacek for finding that). … “The Astros called up a spot starter for their game in Seattle tonight, Rudy Owens, number 99,” writes Adam Schecter. “In the leadoff spot, the Mariners sent out their young outfielder James Jones, number 99. According to the stat on the Mariners telecast, there has never been a 99 versus 99 matchup in baseball before.” Well — it had to happen sometime!

NFL/Football News: The Saskatchewan Roughriders unveiled the final design of their new stadium Thursday (thanks to Seth Moorman). Pretty cool looking, actually. … Here’s a good article, including photographic evidence, that Ronnie Lott once wore #24 with the 49ers (nice find by Roger Faso). … “As you know the bills are currently renovating Ralph Wilson Stadium,” notes Kiernan Smith. “What you may not know is that they are essentially repainting the entire stadium black. No one seems to know why other than its part of the design.” … We may have seen this before (apologies if we have), but here is a rather blurry picture of Brett Favre, taken by reader/submitter Kurt Rozek, on December 24, 2000. Note the jersey has five stripes and, it being cold, the jersey has pockets sewn into it (at what appear to be different heights). … Why yes, this is a beautiful NFL program cover, why do you ask? (from Chris Holmes & thanks, Brinke).

Hockey News: Not really sure this fits the “Hockey” news category, but here goes. Brinke sends along this Extra Mustard article on reimagined 8-bit NHL jerseys that “are really cool in a Blades of Steel kind of way.”

Soccer News: With the World Cup drawing ever closer, Mexico has issued jersey numbers to its players. … The folks at Queens Park Rangers (England, League Championship Division) sent out a “sneak peak” of the shirts they will be wearing for their big match against Darby today (thanks to Joe Hollomon). … Interesting article on the soccer ball design, “Will the 2014 World Cup Soccer Ball Score?” (thanks to TommyTheCPA).

Grab Bag: “Stumbled upon this article” on the most tasteless souvenir from the 9/11 Museum, writes Jason Hirschley. “Isn’t any souvenir tasteless? Nothings says ‘honoring a tragedy’ like profiting from said tragedy.” … The current issue of Racer Magazine features all-time great drivers in 1953 Topps Baseball layout. Says submitter Jonathan Daniel, “Kinda cool.” … Here’s a look at the patch teams will be wearing at the 2014 NCAA Lax Championshipa this weekend (h/t The Emblem Source). … These two pictures were submitted by Dan Richardson a couple months back for the New Westminster Salmonbellies Lacrosse Team of the 1920s. “Our team was started in 1889 and we took our name Salmonbellies from the opposing team’s fans yelling obscenities about the Red Bellies and their Salmon colored sweaters etc,” says Dan. “Instead of getting upset the team embraced the name Salmonbellies and we’ve had the name for 125 years.” Here’s a look at the modern-day Salmonbellies. You can see more photos here. … Remember that wire pic of Bob Feller that Bruce Menard sent Paul recently holding what he assumed was a bobblehead and was actually just a statue? Well, one just came up for auction. “It was made by the Mazzolini Artcraft Co. of Cleveland,” he adds. … Also from Bruce (some of these would never fly today, and were they not historical art, I wouldn’t even post them): this 1910 Indians chalk ware baseball statue, this Milwaukee Braves cookie jar, this 1952 Washington ‘skins souvenir bank, a 1961 AFL Titans matchbook sked, and this vintage House of David pennant and ticket. … “This is cool,” says submitter Dave Rakowski: Obsessed Williamsburg Man Creates Website Devoted To Subway Mosaic Art. Indeed.

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And that’s all for today. Everyone have a great Saturday and I’ll catch you all tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter @PhilHecken.

Peace.

.. … ..

“The US has other soccer players besides Landon Donovan? Who knew?”
–BvK1126

 
  
 
Comments (52)

    Sorry, Phil. The Padres did not go VAL on their throwbacks. Those names are radial arched. It would have been nice if they had gone vertical arched but they did not.

    Yeah. While writing this after midnight, I didn’t look as closely as I should have — you’re correct. Made the change to the text.

    MLB has given the Rays permission to have one player/coach wear a Don Zimmer jersey each game for the rest of the year. Last night third base coach Tom Foley was wearing the #66. Interested to see if only he will be wearing it or if they will rotate game by game.

    Re the 1960s NFL program cover…what beautifully designed helmets! I love the one-bar facemask. Today’s football helmets look like the Flintstones character The Great Gazoo and modern facemasks look like they belong on barbecue grills. GO BACK TO THE ONE-BAR FACEMASKS!

    ….and why would the Eagles, Lions, Cardinals, Vikings, Falcons and Redskins mess with these logos and designs? They are perfect as is.

    Funny how suspension of disbelief works. Saw the new “X-Men” movie last night – a solid meh-plus of a flick. Anyway, near the climax, one guy dressed in a ridiculous leather outfit used his god-like mental powers to rip RFK Stadium out of the ground and levitate it across the streets of Washington, DC.

    link

    That, I had no problem believing. But the movie is set in 1973, and before said superhero believably rips a stadium superstructure off its foundations with his mind, he encounters a member of the grounds crew preparing for a Senators game. Two years after the Nats moved to Texas. That was too much for me, and it pretty much collapsed my suspension of disbelief for the remainder of the film.

    Yeah, but doesn’t the movie take place in the past timeline of a parallel universe? The Senators totally could have still been in DC in 1973 in that alternate reality. Disbelief resuspended!

    Exactly. Parallel universes are neat that way. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Azure Gate Bridge is “Golden” in some universes. You can’t let it bother you.

    But in this version of the Marvel universe, the only mutants with sufficient power to prevent the Senators from relocating are Professor X, but we know from within the film that he could not have controlled Bob Short’s mind in DC in 1971, and Rogue/Mystique, and she pretty clearly has priorities other than impersonating Bob Short and signing a lease extension at RFK. So there’s no in-universe reason for the Senators not to have moved.

    Nerd-rant joking aside, the anachronisms in the film are glaring and continuous. The production designers pretty clearly didn’t even try or care. As long as something looked, from a 2014 perspective, like it might predate the Obama administration, it made the cut for 1973. Props, plot points, dialogue – it was the movie equivalent of a throwback uniform that gets all the details wrong.

    PS: I’m trying to steer clear of actual spoilers. I don’t think anything I’ve mentioned reveals any actual plot points, and the RFK thing was in a trailer.

    Eh, I’m okay with it.. it’s like that thing with the ripples in the pond.. one little pebble out of place in 1947 and, sure the Senators might have still be in Washington in 1973.

    Why would they care if the Senators were still in Washington? Nobody really cares.

    South Dakota State and North Dakota State went pinstripe-on-pinstripe at the Summit League tournament:

    link

    QPR will be playing Derby, not Darby. Pronounced “darby” though :)

    A couple of things they missed. The word mark on the front of the jerseys is smaller than it was on the originals. Due to the smaller letter size, they do not need to split the “d” along the button placket. They also don’t need to split the “d” because on the originals it is slightly off-center, but it is centered along the row of buttons on the throwback. As far as the caps go, the gold front is too wide – something that is highlighted by the use of orange eyelets (air holes) on the cap. Due to the width of the gold panel, they push the orange eyelets to the sides of the panel. On the original cap, the eyelets were in the normal place – centered on the panel.

    ” The word mark on the front of the jerseys is smaller than it was on the originals.”

    ~~~

    Nice catch — updated the text to reflect this!

    Wearing 1984 throwbacks not once, not twice but THRICE against the Cubs? That’s a straight-up troll move.

    Fuck the Padres.

    Oh, hell yeah.
    The Cubs aren’t helping themselves by wearing the blue alts–there’s too much of a resemblance to their ’84 road unis. Their regular “CHICAGO” road jersey is the best in baseball, I wish they’d wear it more.

    I agree, complete troll move. Can’t stand them. I didn’t watch any of the games. My blood boils when I see those uniforms.

    In what other major team sport are players allowed to dictate dress as much as they are in baseball?

    The fact the players can choose NOT to wear stirrups or sanis is ludicrous (throwback games or not). The fact they can choose to wear pants flapping in the wind is certainly a strange behavioral allowance from the powers-that-be. And belts with buckles… when we all know the elastic sport belts, and even sansabelt, are more comfortable (and I’d argue it looks more “sporty” ala basketball shorts, etc.)… I find it surprising that the league hasn’t taken more control of its appearance, ala the NFL.

    This is an excellent point that cannot be made too often. It would be a simple matter to have a rule dictating the use of stirrups and the appropriate length of pants.

    Players would still have the right to individual style. Baggy uniforms vs. tight-fitting uniforms don’t bother me. In fact, baggy uniforms look pretty good with high cuffs and stirrups.

    And even with respect to the pants, all individuality need not be sacrificed. The rule on cuff length could have flexibility: the pants must be cuffed anywhere between the bottom of the knee and the top of the Achilles tendon. This reflects the variability that we saw in past years.

    bottom of the knee — Vince Coleman:
    link

    mid-calf, pants higher than top of stirrup — Tom Seaver:
    link

    mid-calf, pants right at top of stirrup — Reggie Jackson:
    link

    mid-calf, pants over the top of stirrup — Mark Belanger:
    link

    (This version works especially well if the pants have piping. See Garry Maddox
    link

    and Tim Raines
    link )

    top of Achilles tendon — Don Mattingly:
    link.jpg

    We badly need some kind of rule on this, as well as NFL-style enforcement.

    And Phil, as I said yesterday, I disagree with your assessment of the Pads throwback lids being “spot on” to the originals. Look at the photos… The gold section on the hats is not the same. The originals narrowed more toward the top, almost more “triangular” whereas the new ones are much wider it seems. And the helmets….several current guys had that gold section look oddly truncated, like it had been chopped off a little. And that doesn’t even speak for the fact that the throwback helmets are not the same color as the originals. An old little quirck the Pads had was that, back then, their helmets did not match their hats in color. The original helmets almost had a kind of black-ish hue (really can’t describe it any better than that). These throwback helmets matched that caps. Just sayin’…

    Fair point about the caps, although with that design, new cuts/materials, and such, I’ll cut them a little slack there. As far as the helmets, I’ve given up wanting an exact match to past lids (although I agree with your assessment). I’m just glad they even try for retro helmets at all (although in throwback games, usually the home team has gone to the trouble of trying to get those correct).

    But the caps — yes the originals definitely had more of a “bell” shape (and for the helmets, it looked like each throwback was hand painted, since there were inconsistencies in the width and shape).

    I’m not going to edit the text, but I’ll totally agree my original assessment that they were “spot on” was hasty.

    I get criticized for picking too many nits and now for not picking enough ;).

    In the light of day (and without a full day of work then staying up to wait for photos), I will totally concede the caps/helmets were enough off to warrant more criticism.

    Cheers.

    All this grief for the gift shop at the 9/11 Memorial but the Holocaust Museum in DC has a gift shop and a cafe on site. I do not remember anyone bitching about those.

    Nor the gift shop at Auschwitz (true!), the Anne Frank House, the Pearl Harbor memorial, or the dozens of Civil War battlefields across the country. It’s perfectly OK to sell souvenirs on the graves of thousands or millions, except in Manhattan. Basically, this is just a continuation of New York’s insistence that its most recent misfortune must command the world’s eternal attention and special treatment because New York. Even when new rounds of playoffs push the World Series into December, there will never be a moment of silence on the 7th, but fifty years from now we’ll still be singing “God Bless America” and dressing in camo on 9/11.

    Nah, in 50 years the ice caps will have melted and New York will be mostly underwater. Sports teams will be dressing in military cloak uniforms (black & gray digital patterns designed to resemble compressed video artifacts that fool cameras but are blindingly obvious to the naked eye) to commemorate the day New York was permanently flooded, likely mid-June, and 9/11 will be just as forgotten as Pearl Harbor is today.

    I was wondering about the melting ice caps raising sea levels, as The Jeff suggests, so I conducted a small, unsophisticated, unscientific experiment.

    I filled a 16-ounce beer glass with large ice cubes and then filled it to the brim with cold water and left it out overnight so the ice would melt. Next morning, the ice had melted but the water level was about an inch below the brim.

    That led me to ponder this: As frozen water expands, it must require a larger volume of space that liquid water and the ice mass would then displace more water. If the water is in liquid form, it would require less space, if my beer-glass experiment has any validity.

    So I’m wondering if the theoretical melting of polar ice caps (assuming that is actually happening) would not cause sea levels to recede instead of rise, as there would be less volume of water than if the ice caps remained frozen.

    Like I said, I’m no scientist or climatist or whatever they’re calling themselves. I have no answer to the question above. Just wondering….

    And that cheeseplate? Obviously they have every right to attempt to sell it at the 9/11 museum, but to me it borders on the obscene. I suppose in another time, it might be cigarette lighters shaped like one of the twin towers. Tastelessness is one of the costs of living in a free society. Unfortunately.

    The melting which will cause the rise of sea level is not that of the ice that is already floating on water, but that of the ice that is currently sitting on land — on Antarctica and on Greenland.

    Also, there are a couple of feedback phenomena at play here. First, when ice disappears (even ice that is floating on water), the reflectivity of the Earth’s surface (a measure called the “albedo”) goes down, and the Earth absorbs more heat from the sunlight that hits it. This, in turn, accellerates the melting of ice everywhere.

    Second, as the ice sheets slip off Antarctica, the continent itself (and the surrounding seabed) will rise a bit, as it will be freed of plenty of weight; and this will contribute to more sea-level rise around the globe.

    Padres brown uniforms? NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

    Brown should only be paired with baby blue. Everything else is Caldor in the late 70s-early 80s. And NOBODY wants to remember that era.

    Padres brown uniforms? YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!

    My one and only quibble with that uniform is that they went from pullovers to button-down jerseys. That being said, if they brought the ’84 version back as the everyday uniform, I’d be saying “yes” more than Sally Albright in Katz’s Deli.

    Brown and gold, fine. Adding the orange is a step too far, evoking all the worst of 70s-early 80s fashion.

    I’d start with dark brown, then go with either athletic gold or old gold. The road uniforms could be tan or even khaki. No orange.

    evoking all the worst of 70s-early 80s fashion

    And by worst, you mean most awesome.
    link

    Prefer the brown and gold to the brown, gold and orange but anything with brown is better than anything since for the Padres. Pullover, button-up, doesn’t matter much to me.

    If any team has a semi-unique colour scheme in a league, they should go with it (at the very least as a “third jersey” since no one seems to go want to go against the exclusively road grey in the MLB right now).

    Slightly tacky trumps bland and/or generic for me every time.

    The Auburn Hills Pistons…nah, I still wouldn’t wear that.
    link
    They should consider it as an alt jersey, though.

    And SVG’s right…Dan Gilbert needs to worry about his own team.

    I don’t understand why the WTC site wasn’t declared a National Memorial and have the US Park Service run the site. I have no issue with the museum on the site but I do object to charging a fee to enter and to such ridiculous spectacles as the after-hours cocktail party they held there as a thank you to well heeled contributors. Not to mention the storage of victim’s remains that were recently put there. As far as the souvenir shop, I would like to see exactly what they are selling there.

    Who wears brown with light blue?

    Well, there’s Tufts University. And even though it’s really “claret” the color that both Aston Villa and West Ham wear with light blue could be thought of as brown at a quick glance. Dark brown and light blue are a nice color combination.

    The “RAK” on the Padre’s throwback sleeve is disappointing because it looks like the exact lettering used on the backs of the jerseys. They couldn’t have ordered a set of “R’s”, “A’s” and “K’s” that were smaller? Sloppy work on that point.

    I hate pajama pants. When teams do throwbacks and can’t be bothered to show sock, then why do throwbacks at all? When a guy shows sock, I love it. When he wears stirrups, even better. To complain because a guy’s sanis aren’t sanis but ribbed athletic socks (that ,horrors, show a hint of swoosh) is ridiculous. Be happy for what you get.

    Love the Salmonbellies unis and those old time photos! To quote Mr. Vilk, “I’d wear that.”

    I’d much prefer that they (Majestic?) split letters across plackets if it preserves the overall integrity of the team name graphics. They seem to put the letters entirely on the placket, probably for manufacturing ease. Another example is the San Francisco “GIANTS”, whereby the jerseys of earlier in the century/millenium split the “A”. Now it looks like it says: GIA NTS, is asymmetric, and as if the seamstress (no sexism intended) did a poor job.

    Curious…at the beginning of that WSJ video about the Brazuca ball there is a brief clip of the Ecuadorian National Team, followed by the Seattle Sounders. Interesting mix.

Comments are closed.